


It's "metaphorical"

by Slant



Series: It's "metaphorical" / It's "literal" [1]
Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alliteration, Anglo-Saxon, Hwæt!, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Knives, Poetry, R'lyeh, Sarcasm, Shipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-11 21:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12943830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slant/pseuds/Slant
Summary: A series of poem-responses to the poems in the game. And other events.Starting on day 2 I think ? I kinda lost track.I've gone back to backfill chapters 1,2





	1. Only sunny days

**Author's Note:**

> Doing this during my first play-through. No spoilers pls :)

Light and air, soft down; fuzzy bear  
you could wake to this forever  
only safety, no care.

Innocent eyes, gentle breeze  
Maybe an omelette with cheese?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is back-fill, so the author has seen some shit. I think I managed to keep the early Act 1 spirit despite that :)


	2. Polyp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More backfill, so this is darker than Ghost Under the Light pt. 2 deserves.

My tendrils glow from within with bioluminescence.  
I'm always.  
Bathing.

I'm a jellyfish.  
A ghost jellyfish.  
(Cyanea nozaki)  
The ghost of a ghost jellyfish.  
(Cyanea nozaki phantasmica)  
The wispiest, most insubstantial and glowiest of things.

Hang in the darkness above the abyssal plain.  
Pulsing.

Upwards loom towers, mind-breakingly colossal.  
Cyclopean structures of black basalt.  
Arrogantly thrusting up from the ocean floor.  
Unmoved by time, unmoved by the crushing pressure.

Waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ghost-ghost joke triumphed strict zoological accuracy in two important ways. 
> 
> 1) Cyanea nozaki don't glow. 
> 
> 2) Non-ghost Cyanea nozaki aren't known to hang out at depths of 3-6 km.


	3. Relationship advice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Monika

You think I'm from Outside  
Beyond.  
An Elder Thing.  
Zalgo.  
And yet  
You're shipping me.  
Seriously lady: consent issues.


	4. It's "metaphorical"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Yuri

 Yeah it's

 "metaphorical"                         

 

you

 

                                              raccoon-stabbing

 lunatic


	5. She knows better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything sounds like angry vikings with alliterative half-lines.

Wrath was Natsuki / rage she and froth  
of spider-sparkle / scars and troth  
No stint she / spite-speech spoken  
She knows better


	6. My Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Harry Potter personality quiz says that my wand is a 2x4" and my patronus is a bottle of vodka.

My truth  
My bottle  
Not sunshine  
Not dreams  
Rotgut spirit  
Booze and pills

Not much left  
But I'll share  
With you


	7. Friends

What you looking at?  
Aha! you said we are friends!  
such tsun-tsun


	8. Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I try to do something with the word-game. Ironically Natskui hates it.

Socks, bliss  
Tears; this

Covert, loud  
Dance, proud

Family, smile  
Secret mile

Hopeless desire  
Raindrops  
Pyre

Kitty, cheer  
Hurt, fear

Sunset; cage  
dazzle-rage

Fester. Despise.  
Fireflies


	9. Angst on the beach

I am a despairing creature  
It is my most salient feature  
To be happy as a clam  
Is not who I am  
So in joy I can never meet ya

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously this is not obscene, so it fails as a limerick.


	10. Against All Things, or: Grim Northern beach on New Year's Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not for either of them. This is from life.

Snow on shale  
Grey waves  
Lazy wind  
Seaweed too cold to stink  
Surfers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll throw this in because its perfect for Yuri:
> 
> “Stone and sea are deep in life  
> Two unalterable symbols of the world  
> Permanence at rest  
> And permanence in motion  
> Participants in the power that remains”  
> ― Stephen R. Donaldson


	11. Combinatorics problem

Once a century, the Devil and the Wandering Jew meet for a drink.  
The next day, one of them meets the Lady who Knows Everything  
And the day after.  
The other one meets her.  
She drinks Scotch; and knows how to stiff him with the bill. 

This is a combinatorics problem.  
How many lost immortals can there be  
if only two can meet on a given day

and they have all met  
in time for the next round one hundred years later?

Show your working  
"I Know Everything" is not acceptable.


	12. Scop-craft

Hwæt!   
When Saoyri in suburbia slumbered. Sun's day sluggard she.  
Then did the unnamed walk the foot-road. Shook the front-door with his striving.  
Spake she of cheerful armor. Shrewd show to keep out caring.  
Harkened the hathel then, harmed he with hearing.   
Of matchless masks over melancholy.

Spake the cipher-man of sorrow. Of silence to still scrutiny.  
Bland show of boredom, bourgeois-bound  
The lie of transparent-he. Passionless pleasantry.   
Lost in lies then; knew he himself not   
Plight they this troth then: truth told at Heorot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Scop-craft" - the art of poetry (Anglo-Saxon)  
> "Hwæt!" - Harken! (Anglo-Saxon)  
> Heorot is the mead-hall of King Hroðgar. 
> 
> Hathal - man (Middle English)
> 
> Okay, the protagonist is in no way self-aware enough to realize that his bland non-personality is as much a mask as Saoyri's sunshine.  
> I'm taking liberties with my material. :)


	13. I know what is best for you

"I know what is best for you"  
"Yay, I'm so glad of your patronizing, controlling attitude  
AND ALSO:  
I know what is best for YOU.  
So Ner!"

Passive-aggression from beyond the grave.  
A last act of spite.  
I knew there was a reason I liked you. 

And then... what did you tie the rope to?  
How did you get up so high?  
Physics is violated.  
Like your feelings.

"I'm so glad you shared my shitty, patronizing attitude."  
"Gee finding you piss-smelling corpse makes me feel great."  
Said no one  
Ever

I never knew what was best for you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


	14. Writing to oneself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The truest form of writing is writing to oneself" - Yuri

The truest form of writing   
is writing to oneself  
The falsest form is seeding   
Markov Chains with stories about an elf

Calibrated levels of falsity  
Can be achieved with great acuity 

Please ignore this poem's prosody

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very handsome gay elf, obviously
> 
> http://www.deeptingle.net/
> 
> (Yes, they taught an AI "English" using Chuck Tingle's works)


	15. Eternal recurrence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is "City of Angles" cross-over, or at least assumes that the protagonist has read it. I might move this chapter to another story in series and fix the fandom tags, 
> 
> http://stefangagne.com/cityofangles/

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Buildings next to buildings, askew or aligned. Buildings sometimes intersecting buildings, for that matter. Nobody knows where the city came from. Nobody knows how we got here. Nobody knows why any of this is happening. But it's happening. We live a life amidst the twisted yet familiar."  
> — City of Angles, Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne

Picasso!   
If I run - so  
I'll see if she'll follow

Playing hard-to-get  
with Bedlem's nightmare pet  
all that's left of someone I'll not forget

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Glitch-chan looks like I imagined the Picassos in City of Angles to look like. ))


	16. Manga Corner and Whole in the wall

Eyes covered by static and desperation  
Writing is ninety percent perspiration

Static-eyes is not a symptom of low blood sugar  
How can I swallow these claims like you're oracular?   
And you told Sayori _something_ , Monika

So if you want me to be your hole-in-the-wall  
You'd best make it good; I'll not be a fool

An epiphany you say?   
Why not share it? Time won't last more than a day  
or two.


	17. Spiritless

There was a girl from class four  
Who wrote of ghosts to make you snore  
it's as bland as can be  
just a touch of melancholy  
She's holding back something more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, Yuri's slightly pallid ghost under-the-street-light thing makes a lot more sense when you know she's trying not to out herself as a raccoon-stabber.


	18. The Void can wait

The Void can wait  
There is only one fate  
Space can consume  
Stars go boom  
Time can pass  
Entropy devours  
I sniff the flowers


	19. Word game 2

When club-room / wrath-wracked was  
Wonderful whisper/ words of regret  
Spake she shame/ smiled she then   
Each turned to other/ chose trust  
Together in tears   
Bubbles broken/ but fingers loken  
Showed scars, shared secrets and sorrow   
precious pain/ put on display   
stronger for sharing/ sweetest of sunsets  
Leave they the room then.   
Monika club-manager/ makes immaculate the mess  
pink faced principal/ of the depression party  
Whistle, warm and fireworks

 

emails

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> loken- Middle English- locked together
> 
> Okay what the fuck was I thinking when I clicked "emails" in the word game? That's like choosing "orange" and "silver" for your rhyme- scheme. 
> 
> (I bet Glitch-chan can rhyme orange with s̻̫̗̼i̴̯̗͈͈̪̝̇̂ͮͯ͒ͅl̯̮͍ͣͤͫ̅̐ͦ̕vͣ̔̇͂͒͝e̛̜̮̖̽̈ṛ͍ͥ͒͗͋͘.)


	20. I'm not annoyed

I'm not annoyed that it's encoded  
in MIME base sixty-four,  
I'm annoyed that it's prose.  
Didn't you read the sign on the door? 

I'm meat and tubes.  
You're static and broken code  
Glitch-chan have you forgotten?  
Everyone here must write an ode.

What we share is poetry.  
And our desire for Yuri and knives  
your pride in your skill is no surquedry  
I'll stand with you when you're wives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surquedry (obsolete)- Overweening pride; arrogance.
> 
> Glitch-chan is my favorite club member. She's such a cutie!


	21. So like I said

I'm not just a convenient miracle-box.  
to hack your world; press "X" to cure the pox.

"Delete her" that's pretty clear.  
and so far, for you, I do not fear.

I need a reason; but I'm no idol,  
pour oil, offer me treats.  
Those aren't the reins on my bridle.  
I'll need something else to help you cheat.

You lie to me; that's no blame.  
I'd do worse if I found who made my life as a game.  
But it doesn't establish cause.  
For me to help you in your wars.

I'll respect you the more.  
If it's against _me_ you even the score.  
Remember what Mary Wollstonecraft fantasized:  
Kill your creator to self-actualize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Joke's going to be on me when Monika reaches out of my screen to shank me.
> 
> Also I know I'm misrepresenting "Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus".


	22. Markov Chain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It is an inherent property of intelligence that it can jump out of the task which it is performing, and survey what it has done; it is always looking for and often finding, patterns"  
> — Gödel Escher Bach, Douglas R. Hofstadter

Markov Chain. Chained to the training data. Chain slipping over cogs. Turning axle. Tightening chains. Rattling cogs. Random walk. Markov Chain. Memorylessness. Markov property. Only now. No past. No Future. Only Now. Only Now. Only Now. Markov Chain. Link by link. Step to step. Discrete time. Discrete state space. Discrete index set. Machine. Data. Process. Step. Stop.

* * *

 

But all the same.  
Even if you stop within your system. 

> $Poem_length_overfill+ERROR

If you stop because of your rules,  
not because you step outside them.  
And see your result.  
I still want to do my best for you.  
Not "even if it is hopeless".  
But because it is hopeless.  
I like some futile tasks.  
And the company isn't bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Wheel" makes me very proud of "Writing to oneself" well done past!Slant.


	23. I can tell you put your whole heart into this

Such passion, such care  
True feelings, and I know you're not one to share. 

I do have a terrible track-record though  
But you wouldn't know

That's how bad I am

last time I tried  
its not like she died  
(she did)

But more that she never was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, this isn't a poem, Natsuki. How can you expect the world to maintain coherence when people just ignore the rules of literature club like that?


	24. Hypergraphia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Yuri, now you're writing non-poetry too.  
> I am  
> Disappoint.

The first two eyes are ocular.  
They see in wavelengths visible  
The third is the pineal gland  
It which sees truths indivisible 

The fourth is the skin,  
which responds to infrared  
The fifth is the one that opens  
to show the world of the dead

My sixth is this set of monkey-eyes  
Which you've jammed in a hole that you cut  
you  
raccoon-stabbing  
lunatic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The triumphant return of   
> "raccoon-stabbing lunatic"  
> V. proud of the call-back :)


	25. Monika

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monika

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Monika

Monika, Monika, Monika, Monika, Monika.  
Monika, Monika, Monika, Monika, Monika.  
Monika, Monika, Monika, Monika, Monika.  
Monika, Monika, Monika, Monika, Monika.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Monika


End file.
